July 4th reflections

Am I patriotic and optimistic? Maybe on some levels; on some others . . .

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I want to make sure I come at this comprehensively.

Of course, America is exceptional in terms of its thunderous founding documents. The principle crafters of each, Jefferson and Madison, were absolutely brilliant, and were aware they were standing on the shoulders of giants, such as the crafters of the Magna Carta, Locke and Montesquieu. The idea that a nation could be founded on the principle that freedom is the second greatest gifts human beings enjoy, after their lives, was radically novel.

With regard to the vast geographical expanse of this country, its demographic diversity, the inventiveness and ingenuity built into its character, and the infectious fun of its popular culture (at least up to recent times), it’s utterly unique as well.

Today at National Review, there’s a roundup of what staff members love about America, and it’s full of that kind of stuff. Air conditioning, baseball, Waffle House, sweet tea, jazz and skyscrapers are all mentioned.

This would be an apt time to share the link to a piece I wrote in July 2022 for Ordinary Times. It’s titled “Five Quintessentially American Recordings for Cranking Up on Independence Day.” Teaser: the five are “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry, “One O’Clock Jump” by the Count Basie Band, “Hey, Good Lookin’” by Hank Williams, “Mystery Train” by Elvis Presley, and “Dancing in the Streets” by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.

So the United States has been a vibrant land of promise without equal in history.

But now for the wet blanket.

Longtime Precipice readers know that a prevalent theme here is my quest to understand when and how the impulse to transform it into something foreign to its nature took hold. In the most recent post, I revisit some candidates for the point at which that occurred.

I think to launch into the matter here, I’ll start with the varied reactions to the One Big, Beautiful Bill. MAGA’s pretty pleased with it, and some less-fevered righties like it because it prevents a rescinding of the tax brackets that have been in place since 2017.

Such voices, however, seem to give less weight to the trillions in additional debt the OBBB saddles the nation with. There is a swath of our federal legislators for whom that was the main point: Massie, Paul, Ron Johnson, to name a few. Some had the courage of their convictions and voted against it last night. Others, not so much.

For left-of-center folks, a major reason for opposing it is that many citizens will lose, or at least experience the diminishment of, access to health care.

The extent to which that’s because the Very Stable Genius and his craven minions on Capitol Hill are big meanies is not the main matter here.

I know most of them, certainly not the VSG, have never really looked at it from the standpoint of the relationship between government and rights, but that inquiry has deep roots in actual conservatism.

Let’s speak plainly. Health care is not a right. By definition, it can’t be. A human being can’t have a right to the labor of another human being. I realize it’s a hypothetical scenario, but if no one in the world had any interest in becoming a doctor, nurse, X-ray technician, physical therapist or pharmacist, you couldn’t get your health cared for whether you insisted it was a right or not.

Put another way, health care costs something. There’s providers’ salaries, advanced equipment, administrative costs and more. IF someone is receiving health care for free, someone is still paying for it.

I think you know where I’m going with this. It gets paid for by government using its monopoly on the coercive use of force to take the money from ostensibly free citizens. Redistribution, in a word.

That’s always a wrong use of government’s power.

But, beginning with the Progressive movement of the Gilded Age, and its premise that American society had become too urbanized and industrialized, and therefore too complex, to have all its issues addressed by Mr. Madison’s thunderous document of 1789. Progressives really got their chance to expand government’s size, and involvement in Americans’ daily life, during the New Deal era, when agencies were created all over the place and staffed with unelected “experts” in various areas. And it kept going. Agriculture, education, communication, health care.

This level of discussion about it isn’t appearing in the aftermath of the OBBB’s passing.

But that’s just one example of how actual conservative principles have been so thoroughly folded into the MAGA populist mix that leftists aren’t going to miss such a golden opportunity to conflate the two.

I’m not the first or even the gazillionth observer to note that our society is becoming ever more atomized. People settle on the validity of their tribal affiliation and don’t like it disturbed. Hence, we see phenomena such as Zohran Mamdani (whose Democrat primary win in New York City almost assures he’ll be that city’s next mayor, a terrible move in and of itself) catching heat from Muslims for supporting LGBTQ “rights.”

I’ll just briefly touch on the flatlining of American culture, mainly because I write about it a lot. But a recent pop culture news item points up another realm in which atomization is well underway. A foul-mouthed country star - something we didn’t have back in the days of Roy Acuff, Patsy Cline and Eddy Arnold - feels the need to state his opinion on whether Beyonce’s latest album is country:

Country singer Gavin Adcock isn’t holding back from his thoughts on Beyoncé’s latest album, "Cowboy Carter."

The rising star and former college football player made a bold comment about Beyoncé’s entry into country music during a recent concert.

Adcock brought up the Apple Music country album chart rankings during his performance. Beyoncé’s "Cowboy Carter" is listed at No. 3, while his album, "Own Worst Enemy," sits at No. 4.

"One of them’s Beyoncé. You can tell her we’re coming for her f---in’ a--," he said in a fan video.

"That s--- ain’t country music, and it ain’t ever been country music."

He later felt compelled to clarify his stance with a little less yee-haw:

"But I really don’t believe her album should be labeled as country music. It doesn’t sound country, it doesn’t feel country… I just don’t think that people that have dedicated their whole lives to this genre and this lifestyle should have to compete or watch that album just stay at the top just because she’s Beyoncé."

Earlier this year, Beyoncé picked up two Grammys for "Cowboy Carter," one for best country album and one for album of the year.

There’s a point within his point I’d like to address.

The fact that people “dedicate their whole lives to [a] lifestyle” speaks volumes about where we are as a country. The use of narcissism to attach one’s tastes in music to the validation of particular tastes in apparel, vehicles, food and activities is a product of recent times.

I do have to return to the Very Stable Genius for a moment, because his zeal for stomping out not only progressivism, but actual conservatism has done damage to the American essence as grave as the left-of-center machinations over the past 140 years I discuss above. His bringing to heel of law firms and media companies, his ham-fisted ICE raids, his disregard for the national debt, his clown-show cabinet appointments, and his general infantile insistence on being lionized make a mockery of the Founders’ vision.

But I harbor a special kind of contempt for the withholding of Patriot anti-missile batteries and other much-needed materiel from the Ukrainian struggle to roll back the Russian invasion. It shows that the VSG has no understanding of what the West is. And Europe will pay for his ignorance. First. And then . . .

So I am proud of what America was founded to be. But I have real doubts whether the institutions that have bolstered and advanced that essence can withstand the Trumpist assault. Or the progressive assault, for that matter.

So I’ll have some hot dogs and beer today. I’ve already read the Declaration of Independence to my wife, maintaining a 35-year-old tradition. I’ll probably crank the five tunes discussed in the Ordinary Times piece.

But I seriously wonder if a recognizable America can exist again.